CubaPLUS Magazine

Constantly cited within the country's cultural programs, the Sauto de Matanzas Theater -declared a National Monument-  is one of the most valuable stages and institutions of its kind, held by the inhabitants of the beautiful city where it is located as a symbol of their identity.

Its fame on the Island not only responds to the splendor and majesty of its neoclassical architecture, which endowed it from the beginning with one of the best acoustic stages in the country, also due to the beautiful history that made its emergence possible and the enormous number offigures, companies and orchestras that have performed for cults from Matanzas, a custom that continues to this day.

It is time to say that it was inaugurated on April 6, 1863, after a very fast construction process for the time, approximately three years, after the board of directors chaired by the famous engineer Don Francisco de Albear, announced the election from the project of the Italian Daniel Dallaglio. Given the rigor that preceded it, it is logical then that this coliseum heads the trilogy of classic Cuban theaters.

And this also explains why the beautiful building is a vivid example of the neoclassical style, with a seal of Italian style that impresses above all due to its proportions and the elegant sobriety of the entire building, on its exterior and interiors. It has four façades, among which the main one stands out, of Ionic cut, with a portico and upper floor of similar quality. In its interiors it lavishes its qualities arranged for functionality, spatial harmony and its stylized ornamentation placed at some points. .

It has capacity for 775 spectators.Experts define it as a perfect resonance harmonic box, which was conceived with all intention in the chosen project.With such a level of acoustics, without defects until today, many know-how on the subject add that the construction technique was based on the one used in the endowment of the famous Scala in Milan.It was not for nothing that world celebrities appeared there, such as the great Russian dancer Anna Pávlova, the great tenor Enrico Caruso, the actress Sarah Bernhardt, the Cuban musician ErnestoLecuona, the playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature Jacinto Benavente,  actress and singer Libertad Lamarque and Spanish dancer Antonio Gades.

At present, the quality of its stage and the level of the figures is also excellent. One detail: a work of this magnitude in a provincial capital could have been built due to the economic and cultural boom that occurred in the city of Matanzas in the first half of the 19th century, when the sugar industry was promoted. Converted then into the Athens of Cuba, the privileged City of Bridges began to dream of a cultural center worthy of its development. And they more than achieved that purpose.